


When The Night Is Dark

by castletown_ranger



Series: Maybe the Real Wolfie Was the Friend We Made Along the Way [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom
Genre: Twilight is the best older brother, Wild has bad dreams, very very bad dreams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 11:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19109029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castletown_ranger/pseuds/castletown_ranger
Summary: When Twilight does a final sweep of the perimeter for the night, he's surprised to hear that the only noise of concern isn't coming from the surrounding forest. It's coming from within the Links' camp.





	When The Night Is Dark

_ A brick building next to him exploded. The blue light from the guardian’s laser ripped through the stone, sending brick and flaming bits of infrastructure flying through the air. Wild ducked behind a nearby fountain for cover, but couldn’t stay there for long as another guardian trained its deadly blue gaze onto it as well. He just barely rolled out of the way when the beam hit.  _

 

_ Back on his feet, Wild glanced around to get his bearings and was hit with the full force of the world ending around him. Half of Castle Town was on fire, the other half was already in ruins. Guardians crawled over the rubble, firing beam after beam after beam after beam. They stalked the grounds and trampled everything in their path.  _

 

_ Farther down the street, Wild noticed a small child stumble out from a partially collapsed house. She was holding a stuffed doll.  _

 

_ A guardian rounded the corner right behind her.  _

 

_ Wild ran. He ran faster than he’d ever run in his life. But the guardian already had its sights locked onto the small child. And the blue that followed was much faster than Wild was.  _

  
~ ~ ~

 

Twilight was the last awake at the campfire. He and Time had stayed up later than the rest, talking as the moon passed overhead. But eventually the aged hero had decided to settle in, leaving Twilight alone to stare at the flames. It wasn’t so much that Twilight had trouble falling asleep, it was just that he didn’t want to yet. He prefered being awake. And he’d always found nighttime to be rather enjoyable, too; the soft chirping of crickets, the cool breeze, the moon beautiful and bright overhead. It felt calm. Like a moment he wanted to stay in longer. 

 

However, tiredness catches up with everybody eventually. With a yawn, Twilight rose and did one final sweep of the perimeter in his wolf form. He felt far more alert to his surroundings in this form; his keener senses making it easier to potentially register any faint sound or smell of an enemy approaching in the dark. And besides, no one was awake to see him transform. 

 

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary while he was circling the camp. The crisp air smelled as if there weren’t any monsters around for miles, and there was nothing alarming that he could see or hear. Treading carefully back to the camp, however, Twilight’s ears perked up. 

 

It wasn’t the snapping of twigs or the approaching of footsteps that he heard. It was something much smaller. The sharp intake of breath from one of his companions, so faint and far away that he definitely would not have heard it if he wasn’t in his wolf form. With a quick glance around the camp he that noticed Wild, on the opposite side of the campfire, was curled into himself. The hero’s eyebrows knit together, shoulders shaking ever so slightly. Careful not to wake any of his other friends, Twilight padded around the fire and gently nuzzled Wild with his nose. 

 

Wild woke up almost immediately. He sat up with a start, gasping for breath and jerking forward. His hands went to his hair as he heaved. A few moments passed before he even noticed Twilight was there. And when he finally did, he couldn’t meet his friend’s eyes. 

 

“Thank you.” Wild was quiet, his voice barely a whisper above the crackling fire. “I’m sorry if I interrupted your sleep, at all.” 

 

Twilight wished he could speak in his wolf form. He thought about changing back into a human so he could tell him that it was okay, that he would listen if Wild wanted to talk about anything, but the quiet hero always seemed to be more receptive to animals than humans anyway. Fighting off the anxiety of another hero waking up and taking notice that ‘Wolfie’ was there and Twilight was not, Twilight simply sat down and leaned into Wild’s side. 

 

Silence hung in the air between them for a few moments. The fire began to fizzle out, and the soft orange glow that once washed over their camp was replaced with the pale blue light of the moon. At some point Wild’s hand left his hair and went to Twilight’s fur. He absentmindedly brushed his fingers in long, smooth strokes. It was soothing to Twilight, and there was no doubt in his mind that it was soothing to Wild as well. Twilight was keenly aware of everytime Wild’s breath came a little shorter or got caught in his throat, but there were no more tears.  

 

“I want to go back to sleep,” Wild began. “I really want to sleep so,  _ so _ badly. But every time I do I just have the most vivid dreams…” He paused, looking down at Twilight as if he wasn’t sure whether he should keep talking or not. Twilight gave a small nod. With a deep breath, Wild continued, “At first my dreams were rather ordinary. Crystal clear, which was a bit odd, but they weren’t anything unusual. Then things changed. They got darker. Violence filled them. I just feel like I see something horrible everytime I close my eyes, and I can’t help but feel that…Everything I see just feels like…” 

 

Wild did not finish his sentence. His hand stopped moving in Twilight’s fur. And he reached out with both arms to fully embrace him in a hug. 

 

“I feel like I’ve seen them all before.” 

 

It was only then that Wild’s tears returned. Twilight shifted his body so that he could fully lean into Wild and comfortably rest his head on Wild’s shoulder. His tail curled around the crying hero before he could even really register the movement. 

 

Wild was a quiet but vibrant force of nature. He was more competent in the wilderness than most of the other heroes combined, and was always experimenting with new recipes which he loved showing to the group. In a way, he was the one that ensured their survival during their day to day lives. But there had always been a shadow in the hero’s eyes that Twilight could never quite place. Until now. 

 

Wild’s nights were racked with visions of a past he once had. He didn’t need to elaborate on this for Twilight to understand; he knew already that Wild had chunks of his memory missing, and the way he described his dreams, so clear, like he’d seen them all before, solidified in Twilight’s mind what Wild was maybe too scared to talk about out loud. 

 

The hero clung to Twilight, half his face buried in his fur. Eventually his tears started to subside and Wild began to grow limp, but Twilight did not move. He allowed Wild to rest on top of him, and stayed awake long after he’d fallen asleep to listen to his breathing and his heart rate. If there was anything out of the ordinary, like what he had heard before, Twilight resolved that he would wake Wild up again. But the hero seemed to finally be peaceful at rest, and it was only then that Twilight changed back into his human form and let himself drift off. 

 

Whatever Wild was seeing, whatever Wild had been through, must have been something awful. Twilight did not know the full details of Wild’s adventure, but he felt as if he was beginning to understand more about the toll it took on him. Wild was such a sweet kid, though. Quiet, and even a little rash and impulsive at times, but a kind soul deep down. Twilight felt bad that he carried so much pain with him. Thinking about all this, something within Twilight surged. Something that felt like it came from his stomach and traveled up to his chest and soon overflowed his entire body. 

 

_ I will keep you safe.  _

 

It was identical to the feeling he associated with all the kids from his village, the ones who looked up to him like an older brother all those years ago. Now he would protect Wild, his new little brother, in any way he could. And making sure the boy slept soundly through the night felt like the most important way he could do that right now. 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I know we all have to suspend a little bit of disbelief here when another Link doesn't wake up to take the watch after Twilight. Maybe the reason for this is because they've all been out and about in the world before, they've all totally slept alone in dangerous places alone before, so why would anyone need to stay awake? Yeah. Sure, let's go with that. The ACTUAL reason for this is because this one-shot is based directly off Jojo's comic "Nightmares," and in that comic there wasn't another Link on watch who noticed Twi seemed to be missing the entire time Wolfie was there, so...yeah. I'm trying my best, guys. I promise. Also! This was the very first fic I ever wrote for LU! I posted it on Tumblr way back when, but have since edited it for the version you see now.


End file.
